Pick and go
A ruck and maul drill for U10 and up, with where the cones go, how it runs and what to say when it is not working.
Free to read with no account. It works at a pitch with no signal too.
- Age grades
- U10, U11, U12
- Time
- 9 minutes
- Players
- 6 to 18
- Space
- 20 x 10 m
- Kit
- 6 cones, 1 ball
- Pitch
- Wants a forgiving surface
- Indoors
- Fits a small space
Setting it up
A line of players a metre apart up a narrow channel. Ball on the floor at the start.
How it runs
First player picks up, drives one metre, goes down and places. Next player picks up and does the same. Work the whole line up the channel. Two lengths. It gets the pick up and the placement joined together so many times over that it stops being something they have to think about.
What to watch for
- Two hands on the pick up, get low before you lift
- Ball tucked into your chest before you go anywhere
- Place it long the moment you are down
Make it easier
- Walk it
- Place from a kneel
Make it harder
- Two metre drives
- A defender walking alongside applying pressure
What it looks like when it is going wrong
What you can see from the touchline, then the one thing to say about it.
- Picking up one handed on the run so the ball spills
- Stop, two hands, then go. Speed comes later
- Ball carried out from the chest where it can be knocked out
- Squeeze it into your ribs before your feet move
Safety. No contact between players in the basic version. Ground contact only, checked pitch.
The RFU's Headcase is where to go for what to do after a bang on the head. It is theirs rather than ours.
More like this
The grades that can do it
What U10 rugby allows is the rule this sits under. Regulation 15 is reissued every summer, so the RFU's own rules of play are the ones to read for this season rather than a copy on somebody else's website. Ours included. Read against the RFU's 2026/27 appendices in August 2026.